1988 | Mercedes-Benz 500 SE

A two-owner W126 500SE in silver with navy leather that has covered just 49k miles from new.

The short wheel-base, steel-sprung, face-lift 500 is, in our opinion, the best of all the W126 models to drive. The short 500 is also fairly rare, so it’s always great to find one, particularly such an original car with a such a lovely specification.

Supplied new by Gerard Mann of Birmingham to Kensington/Chelsea-based owner. The car was taken to Paris around the millennium and put into underground storage there until recently. The car shows as having had two owners, but we suspect it may have been pre-registered as its history suggests one owner from new.

The service history until 47k miles is with Alan Day MB, Belgravia Service Station and Bradshaw and Webb MB. We have just carried out a major service on the car at just over 49k miles.

Just MoT’d with no advisories. HPI clear.

Finished in Astral Silver with dark blue leather upholstery. Its spec includes alloy wheels, air conditioning, cruise control, heated front seats, electric front seats, rear reading lights, outside temperature gauge. There’s a period Kenwood tape player up front with a CD changer in the boot and, of course, the Motorola telephone between the front seats, which was pretty much compulsory on these cars in the 80s.

Having lived in central London and Paris, this 126 has never seen salt and as such is in incredible condition underneath with zero corrosion, which is the biggest problem with these cars today.

The silver paintwork is in excellent condition, with correct contrasting grey lower panels. The wheels are freshly refurbished and wear recent matching Khumo tyres (including the spare).

The bumper chromes are excellent with no corrosion (even on the inside).

The interior is original and immaculate – supple leather, rich woodwork and no fading to the trim – which hopefully is shown by the accompanying photographs.

An extremely well driving car, with a crispness and refinement that you only get on low mileage cars like this.

As W126 S-Classes were bought to drive, so unlike SLs it’s so hard to find lovely, low-mileage cars such as this. A great example of arguably the best S-Class Mercedes made.